After you watch this, you’ll see big government everywhere January 24, 2014 Adam Smith wrote that "people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public" – and that's exactly what me mean when we talk about corporatism. When big business and government get in bed they can make rules to favour big companies, [...]
3 things Cameron won’t tell you about reshoring January 24, 2014 David Cameron has declared he wants Britain to become a "reshore nation." Speaking at the World Economics Forum in Davos, the Prime Minister said he wants international companies to resettle in the UK and has established Reshore UK to facilitate the process. David Cameron argued that reshoring would increase quality, shorten lead times and improve [...]
“Recovery has some way to run” before rate hike, says Carney January 24, 2014 The UK is still some way off moving away from "the emergency setting of monetary policy". Speaking at Davos, Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said that "even thought unemployment is falling faster than expected, the recovery has some way to run". After Wednesday's news that three month unemployment has fallen to 7.1 per [...]
Argentina to lift controls and allow dollar purchases after peso crash January 24, 2014 A crackdown on illegal currency exchanges saw the peso collapse by around 12.5 per cent yesterday, to around $0.125. Now the Argentinian government is to lift currency controls, and allow dollar purchases from 27 January after the currency hit an "acceptable" level. Yesterday Johns Hopkins professor Steve Hanke, former adviser to Argentine economy minister Domingo [...]
Hornby loses steam as model train maker de-couples from main supplier January 24, 2014 The model railway engine maker Hornby has reported another distinctly unimpressive set of results, warning that "supply chain issues" mean it expects sales for its financial year to be below current market expectations and down on last year’s total. Speaking at Davos this morning, Prime Minister David Cameron said that Hornby will be moving some of [...]
Nokia receives welcome relief as SocGen upgrades to “buy” January 24, 2014 Troubled communications firm Nokia received some welcome news this morning as French bank Societe Generale upgraded the company's shares from "hold" to "buy." The bank explained that Nokia had revised up its guidance for intellectual property licence fees from €500m (£410m) to €600m (£594m) annually on the back of higher fees to be received by [...]
JP Morgan’s giving Jamie Dimon a pay rise January 24, 2014 Something of a volte face for investment bank JP Morgan – its board has voted to raise chief executive Jamie Dimon’s annual compensation for 2013, according to reports from The New York Times. Last year his pay was halved following the so-called London Whale trading fiasco. The highly contentious decision to up it was met [...]
Supportive monetary policy has worked, says Osborne January 24, 2014 George Osborne thinks supportive monetary policy has done its job and data has shown that it works. Speaking on The Future of Monetary Policy panel at Davos, the chancellor said that the success of monetary policy "confounds" its opponents who said that other things were needed. Osborne described the UK's recovery as income generated, not [...]
What you need to know before the open – 24/01 January 24, 2014 Yesterday, with disappointing economic data from China and a raft of lacklustre earnings reports over the week, markets finally made a marked move downwards. earnings concerns & Chinese data takes Street of Dreams lower – DOW -1%, S&p 500 -0.86%, NASDAQ -0.57% – DOW has lost 2% this month & S&P 1% — David [...]
Privatised Royal Mail sees parcel business boom January 24, 2014 Recently privatised Royal Mail Group has reported a boost in like-for-like revenue of two per cent in its trading update for the nine months ended 29 December 2013. Parcel revenue grew strongly, up eight per cent on a like-for-like basis. Addressed letter volumes fell by five per cent on a like-for-like basis, in line with [...]